General Cinema opened this theatre on 7/12/74, as the Saddleback 1-2-3. Edwards added the site to their chain in the late 70’s and opened the second triplex on 2/8/80. Located in El Toro for most of it’s run as a cinema (El Toro became Lake Forest in 1991), the theatre was joined by both the Edwards El Toro 5 and Edwards/Sanborn Laguna Hills Mall 3 in the 1980’s; resulting in three Edwards sites being located roughly a mile away from one another and a, then surprising, fourteen screens serving the area.

The 1-2-3 had 3D anaglyph 35mm projection. I remember seeing Jaws 3D, Spacehunter 3D, and Metal Storm 3D. Once the 4-5-6 was built, the 1-2-3 started to play movies like Friday the 13th and Avenging Angel type films while the 4-5-6 played the bigger films like Ghostbusters. Then the El Toro 5 across the street started to be the theatre that opened all of the blockbuster titles in 1984. The 1-2-3 had this weird landscape and waterfall displays behind the building. When you exited the auditoriums it led to this path where the waterfalls were. It was neat and weird at the same time.

I remember going to theaters 123 and 456 as a kid. There was a Play company toy store and Pet store on the 456 theater side. The book store was in the middle of the parking lot and had a hexagon shape.I also remember walking through the back side of theaters 123 where the waterfall path was and going to a Arvac Electronic supply store on the other end of the shopping center where Kentucky fried chicken use to be.